


Safer With You

by Mony (Mony_Writes)



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, BABY RACE, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, and davey is a great friend, jack is a good big brother, mentions of knife/guns as weapons but nobody gets hurt, well 6yr old race but shh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26726200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mony_Writes/pseuds/Mony
Summary: Race call's Jack at 6 am with a sob and a "please come home"_______This started as an excuse for baby Race and ended as an excuse for protective Jack.
Relationships: Crutchie & Jack Kelly, Crutchie & Racetrack Higgins, David Jacobs & Jack Kelly, Racetrack Higgins & Jack Kelly
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Safer With You

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk/prompt me over on my Tumblr @wide-eyed--wonderer !! And, as always comments/feedback are welcomed and appreciated!!

Jack loved his brothers. He did.

But God had he missed hanging out with just Davey.

He felt like since the school holidays had begun he hadn’t spent more than a minute away from Race. The six-year-old just wanted to shadow him everywhere. Including when he was hanging out with Davey. And he wanted Jack to see everything he’d learnt at school. Or at dance.

Charlie wasn’t much better. Even though he was closer in age to Jack, he’d clearly missed spending all day with him, and the two of them found themselves playing video games far too late into the night.

It was a rare night when the three brothers didn’t end up in the same bed. Even rarer were the nights when they weren't sharing a bedroom.

Or a pullout couch in the living room, with some long-forgotten movie playing in the background.

Jack loved his brothers. But it could get very suffocating.

So Jack was spending the night at the Jacobs’ place. Les and Sarah were both out for the night, at separate friends houses, and Davey's parents went to bed early, so Jack and Davey spent the whole night together.

Jack felt a little ridiculous, at 23 years old having a sleepover at his friend's house, but Davey had insisted he needed a break, and the ability to “be a kid for once in your life Jackie.”

He wasn’t too worried about leaving his brothers. Charlie was home and the 16-year-old was more than capable of watching Race and making sure he got to bed on time.

All this to say, Jack was slightly annoyed when his phone rang and he picked it up to hear Races voice coming through the home phone.

Especially at three am. When Davey and he had been asleep.

“Jackie?” Came Races little voice through the phone.

“Racer? It’s 3am? What are you doing up still?” Jack rolled over and whispered, trying not to wake Davey up.

“Can ya come home?” Race whispered back and then yelped. The yelp caused Jack to sit up straighter.

“Racer? What’s wrong?” Davey woke up as Jack's voice picked up in volume and he looked over at Jack quizzically, but Jack didn’t even notice, too focused on his little brother on the other end of the phone.

“So I might have stayed up late watching scary movies and there’s something making noise outside.” Another yelp. The next part comes out as almost a sob. “Can you come home?”

Jack sighed and felt the panic recede. Race definitely should not have been watching scary movies, the kid has too active of an imagination for that. And Charlie knew that. And thus Jack decided, Charlie could wake up and deal with it.

“Hey Race, can ya take a deep breath for me?” He could hear Race trying to control his breathing through the phone. “That’s it. Where’s Charlie, can ya put him on the phone for me?”

The mention of Charlie sent Race into another round of sobbing, which caused the alarm bells in Jack’s head to activate again.

“I DID because he told me to let you have this night with Davey and not to call you, so I went and got Charlie when I heard the noise, and, and, he said he could hear it too so he went outside to check and told me to wait here, and he hasn’t come back in yet!” Race was full out sobbing now.

Shit. shit shit _shit_. Jack muted the phone and hurriedly grabbed his coat and pulled his shoes on.

“Something's wrong at home. I need to go back now.” Davey, clearing sensing something was wrong, grabbed his own coat and keys.

“I’ll drive, you keep talking to Race.” Jack mouthed a thank you at Davey and unmuted the phone.

“Hey baby, you still there?” Jack knew he was, he could hear the deep breathing and occasional sob. But he needed Race to be able to talk.

“Yeah,” Race whimpered through the phone.

“Good job, you’re doing a great job.” Jack got into the car, and Davey was off before the door was fully closed. “Davey and I are on our way.” He could hear Races sobbing starting to pick up again. “I’m so proud of you. I need to ask you a couple of questions, ok. You think you can help me out?” Jack really did need answers, but he was also hoping talking would calm Race down a little.

“Ok, ok Jackie” Race sniffed, and his sobs started to subside again.

“Good. Did Charlie go out the front or the back door?”

“Um, back.”

The back was marginally better. They had security cameras out there so Jack could see what was happening in real-time. But it was also entirely enclosed, which means that whoever got in, broke in.

“That's perfect. How long ago did you wake him up?”

“I - I don’t know” And Race was sobbing again.

“Hey, hey, breathe, remember?” Jack waited until he could here Races sobs subsiding, cursing for the millionth time that Davey lived so far away,

“I’m so proud of you. Listen we are -” Jack looked at Davey, who held up 3 fingers silently, eyes focused on the road, - “about three minutes away. Now, when we get there, I’m gonna go outside and see if I can see Charlie, and Davey’s gonna come up and sit with you. That ok?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Davey nod.

“But, I want you Jackie” Race whimpered.

“I know baby. I wanna see you too. But I gotta make sure your brother’s ok first. And then I’ll come up and give you a big hug. Davey can hug you for me, ok baby?”

“Oh, ok Jackie.” Race sniffed.

“Ok, I need to ask you one more question, Race, can you try to answer it for me?”

“Yeah, yeah I can Jackie.” And Jack heard Race take a big breath

“Good baby. Can you tell me what you heard outside?”

“I heard some people whispering, and some banging, and I think I heard the bird feeder fall down cause something heavy hit the floor but then it got all quiet again. And then I heard more whispering so I went and got Charlie. I’m still in his room now.”

“Ok, good job. Thanks so much Race.” Davey pulled onto Jacks street. “we’re here now, so I’m gonna hang up with you now and Davey will be up soon. Love ya baby.”

“Love ya too Jackie”

Jack hung up the phone and turned and murmured to Davey “He’s in Crutchie's room. If I’m not up in 10minutes, call the cops.” The car had barely pulled to a stop before both boys were out, and Jack was opening the door to the house. Before he could keep going, he felt Davey's hand on his shoulder.

“Stay safe Jackie.” Jack nodded.

“Keep my baby safe, Daves.”

With one look up the stairs in the direction Davey had gone, Jack headed to the kitchen, and grabbed a knife.

One of the knives was missing, which hopefully meant Charlie had gone out with some protection. He slipped his phone into his pocket, and made his way to the backdoor, as he got closer, he could hear Charlie talking.

“Listen, we, we really don’t have anything. And my baby brother, he’s, he’s upstairs, and he’s all alone and scared. Please just go.” Charlie was holding it together pretty well, but he knew him well enough to hear the undercurrent of fear in his voice.

Jack peeked out the door and saw Charlie and two guys. Charlie was holding his knife in front of him, but one of them had a gun and was pointing it at Charlie. They both looked young. But young didn’t mean unthreatening. Especially when Charlie couldn’t run.

Not with his bad leg.

Jack took a deep breath, he hid the knife in his pocket, and walked out, with his hands in the air.

“What's going on out here fellas?” He tried to keep his tone nonchalant, but his eyes scanned Charlie, who’s gaze had snapped to meet Jacks.

“Jack” Charlie breathed out

“Hey Charlie, how's it going.” Jack shot a small smile at his brother, but on the inside, he was freaking out. He walked over and put himself in front of his brother, and felt Charlies shaking hand reach up and twist in his shirt.

“Who are you?” The bigger boy asked. Jack was adept enough at reading kids by now to hear the fear in his voice.

“I’m his big brother.”

“Thought he said he had a little brother.” The other one, whose gun was still pointed at Jack, chimed in.

“He does. He’s up in his bedroom.” Jack gestured vaguely toward one of the upstairs windows, knowing Races actually looked out onto a side street on the other side of the house.

“Poor kid Got real scared when Charlie didn’t come back so he called me. So I checked the security cameras” Jack waved to one of the security cameras. “And saw you, fellas, out here harassing him. So naturally, I came back to see what two young gentlemen are doing in my backyard. Scaring both my brothers.”

The two boys glanced at each other. A subtle nod from one got the other lowering his gun. Jack breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Look, we just saw this big house, and.. We’re just so hungry. We just needed something to pawn.” The first boy offered.

Jack looked at the two boys sympathetically.

“Listen, I know this house definitely does not make it seem like it, but I know what it’s like to be desperate, but this, pointing a gun on little kids, ain’t the way to go about it fellas.” Jack turned partially to Charlie and kissed him on the head, keeping one eye on the trespassers.

“Can you run and get me the notepad on the table, and then go upstairs and check on your brother.” Jack murmured to Charlie.

“Jack I -”

“You did great Charlie, I got it from here.” Jack squeezed his hand.

Charlie ran inside to get everything, and Jack pulled out his wallet and grabbed a $50 note. Charlie ran back and gave Jack the notepad, and with one last nervous glance at the intruders, ran inside.

Jack scribbled an address and a phone number on the note, and gave the note and the money to the closest boy.

“This is the phone number of one Ms Medda. She runs a kids homeless shelter, and finds jobs for homeless kids and such. No authorities involved or anything. Just a roof and food and a job so you can support yourselves. It’s how I got my brothers out. Tell her Jack Kelly sent ya. She’ll know what to do” Jack smirked.

The two boys looked at the address and back up at Jack.

“Look, Mr, we’re really sorry, we weren’t gonna hurt your brothers, promise.” They both looked incredibly apologetic, and Jack had been close enough to doing the same thing enough times before Medda had found them.

“I know, youse two are just kids, and you're scared and desperate. I get it.” Jack held his hands up. “Just don’t let it happen again, ok. Let Ms Medda help.” Jack pointed to the broken gate that the boys had clearly come in through.

The two boys looked at Jack, and with a small smile, ran out the back gate. Jack breathed out a sigh of relief. He headed back inside to the kitchen and locked the back door. Then he checked all the downstairs doors were locked. And the windows. Only after he was sure the house was secure did he put the knife back in the kitchen, and run upstairs to Charlie’s room.

When he got upstairs, he saw Davey sitting on the bed, and Race in Charlie's lap on the floor, sobbing, and Charlie rubbing small circles on his back.

“Oh my baby boys.”

Race screamed and jumped off Charlie into Jack's waiting arms. Charlie followed not long after, sobbing barrelling into Jack, knocking Jack flat on his back on the bed.

“Jack I’m so sorry I should have -”

“Jackie don’t go -”

“-taken better care of Race but I didn’t-”

“-please Jackie I was so scared I promise -”

“Know something was out there I just thought he was hearing things -”

“-I’ll never watch a scary movie again!”

“-because I let him watch Monster House and-”

“Boys, hey. Hey. stop talking. Take a deep breath. It’s ok. Nothings gonna happen to either of you. Promise.” He clung to both his brothers and placed a kiss to both their heads.

“Hey Charlie,” Charlie looked up at Jack, tears streaming down his face, “this wasn’t your fault, ok. You did everything right. You kept Race safe. I’m proud of ya.” Charlie nodded and put his head back into Jack's shoulder.

“And Race, trust me, I ain’t letting either of you out of my sight for a long time.”

The brothers lay there a little longer, clinging to each other, relishing in the fact that the danger had passed and they were all safe.

Jack had noticed in the yard that there was some destruction, and Race was right, the bird feeder had got knocked down and he’d need to get a new, stronger, latch for the gate, but all of that could wait till the morning.

“Davey, what’d ya say to finishing our night here?”

“I’d say that sounds like a great idea. I’ll text my ma and let her know the boys needed us.” Davey grabbed his phone and headed out, probably to grab a blanket and pillow from the spare bedroom.

“C’mon boys, let's get comfortable.” Without letting go of either of his brothers Jack moved so he was lying the right way in the bed. He felt Charlie reach down and pull a blanket over the three of them.

“Love you boys.”

“Love you, Jackie.”

“Love ya, Jack.”

The three boys were asleep before Davey came back.


End file.
